The poll that put progress in train

The daily commute from Gosford to his job in Sydney takes up to three hours of David Browne's day.

There's little surprise the IT professional, who has lived in the area for about 30 years, would love a job closer to home. However, unlike many others in the marginal Liberal seat of Gosford, he does not want his train trips to get faster.

He and colleague Darren Kimber are among 20,000 to 30,000 Central Coast voters who travel to Sydney every day.

Mr Kimber, and other commuters spoken to by the Herald, would like Labor to deliver on a commitment for a fast train to the coast.

But Mr Browne says that would spoil the area with more development.

"Once you cut down on commuting time, that is going to bring more people."

An undecided swinging voter, Mr Browne says he would prefer the candidates to make a commitment to get more jobs to the region.

In particular, they should support an IT business park at Somersby, which might save him commuting to Sydney.

Last year, the Carr Government moved more than 500 jobs with the WorkCover Authority to Gosford, one of many projects it has funded in this seat recently.

Others, following strong local campaigns, include $2.5million for a pedestrian bridge near schools in East Gosford, $18million to upgrade Avoca Drive and the Entrance Road, and $113million to rebuild Gosford hospital.

The deputy Liberal leader and incumbent MP, Chris Hartcher, holds the seat by a margin of only 2.3 per cent after an 8.8 per cent swing against him at the last election.

He says Labor is throwing a lot of money at the electorate to buy votes. "They are saving up everything they can ... they have kept people on ice for four years."

His Labor opponent, university lecturer Deborah O'Neill, puts it differently.

She says of the long-standing issue of the pedestrian bridge: "Given 14 years to do it, the Liberal Party did not commit any funds to that until I made it an issue in the campaign." (Mr Hartcher says his lobbying has gone unanswered.)

The Coalition has also committed to funding extra police in Kincumber, Terrigal and Gosford.

Ms O'Neill lacks Mr Hartcher's local profile, but even though this should be Liberal heartland, the Coalition cannot take the seat for granted. Both sides are working hard, and spending big, to win it.

Other parties running include the Democrats, Save our Suburbs and the Greens, who have been plagued by divisions over the selection of their candidate.

After initially preselecting James Adams, they replaced him last month with Mark Dickinson. Mr Adams was last night considering running as an independent.

Development and infrastructure are strong local issues in this rapidly growing seat.

But above all - and on this Mr Browne and Mr Kimber agree - voters say it would be nice for the trains to run on time and to have enough seats for all the travellers.